If you want to fast, go alone.If you want to go far, go together.~African Proverb

I had the honor and opportunity to represent MNPS’ Collaborative inquiry work and a Multi-State Data Use Standards working group at the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement conference this past weekend.

While following the conference hashtag, #ICSEI2017, on Twitter, one of my colleagues from Belgium shared the above quote. Needless to say, I loved it and completely agree with it.

I remember June 4, 2014 when a diverse group of 41 educators and community partners across the district came together to begin discussing data use and the barriers to having effective data use practices in MNPS. Several barriers (at least 33) were identified at this time. Using a consensus building protocol, we narrowed the focus to the top 3, which were:

lack of a common language

lack of trust throughout the organization

lack of leadership modeling (“walking the walk”)

After identifying these barriers, logic models were developed to create road maps for overcoming the barriers. These roadmaps have served to inform the collaborative inquiry work for the past 3 years.

To address the common language issue, a committee was convened throughout 2015 to develop the MNPS Innovation Configuration (IC) Map for Collaborative Inquiry and was revised after 4 months of implementation where 5 middle schools (Haynes, Margaret Allen, Two Rivers, West End, and Wright Middle Preps) provided feedback to make it better.

Another committee was convened during 2015 to develop an evaluation plan for collaborative inquiry. If we expected schools to use data for making informed decisions, then we needed to “walk the walk.” A Teacher Data Use Survey, interviews, focus groups, and observations were used to collect data to answer the below questions:

How and where is collaborative inquiry occurring in MNPS schools and with what fidelity?

How does the culture of MNPS support collaborative inquiry and promote the integration of collaborative inquiry as essential to the work of the district?

What preparation and support needed to implement collaborative inquiry are teachers and administrators receiving?

Is collaborative inquiry making a difference for teaching and learning in MNPS?

The MNPS Collaborative Inquiry has only been able to get as far as it has because we are doing it together. If you have a collaborative inquiry success story to share OR need any collaborative inquiry support, please feel free to contact Margie Johnson at margie.johnson@mnps.org.

In the last blog post, I shared about the beginning of the MNPS collaborative inquiry journey, which included identifying barriers to implementing collaborative inquiry. The IC Map (Innovation Configuration) Map for Collaborative Inquiry helped address the barrier of the lack of a common language. Another barrier identified by the stakeholder group was lack of leadership modeling, or as we call it "walking the walk."

The identification of this barrier led to the development of an evaluation plan for collaborative inquiry. When implementing a new idea or strategy, creating an evaluation plan before implementation helps with monitoring progress. Through our partnership with REL Appalachia, MNPS received technical assistance for developing an evaluation plan and for building our capacity to use the plan to monitor our progress.

With the evaluation plan created, the next step was to pilot it with the MNPS Collaborative Inquiry Community of Practice schools in the spring of 2016. To answer the evaluation questions, multiple sources of data sources were used. REL Appalachia liaison, Dr. Stephanie Wilkerson, helped MNPS develop data collection protocols, including the Teacher Data Use Survey (to be released by IES soon), Collaborative Inquiry interview protocols, and Collaborative Inquiry Focus Group protocols. Fortunately, the support did not stop there as Dr. Wilkerson and her staff worked with an MNPS team to build our capacity to collect the data necessary for answering the evaluation questions in the future when their assistance is no longer available. Finally, the data collected this spring was triangulated and used to develop the Preliminary Evaluation Report for the Collaborative Inquiry Community of Practiceand Infographic.

5 Key Findings and Recommendation from the Preliminary Evaluation Report for the Collaborative Inquiry Community of Practice

Key Finding and Recommendations #1

Schools are applying collaborative inquiry practices in differing ways based on their school needs and school leadership.

Use the IC Map.

Create an action plan.

Identify school collaborative inquiry leaders.

Key Finding and Recommendation #2

The use of collaborative inquiry in schools is making a positive difference in how teachers approach using data to make evidence-based decisions.

Continue to evaluate collaborative inquiry for impacts.

Key Finding and Recommendation #3

MNPS teachers feel supported in implementing collaborative inquiry, but need more professional learning.